I appreciate Stephen Snow’s article about PTSD [“Males, War and PTSD,” July 30]. Amy Goodman from Democracy Now has commented on how many veterans needing care for PTSD are just not getting the help they need. The list of services that veterans can turn to, posted at the end of the article, was comprehensive—yet it overlooks holistic and complementary therapies such as acupuncture. Acupuncture can treat “outbursts of anger, difficulty sleeping … nightmares … and exaggerated startle response,” referred to by Snow. Another factor that may appeal to someone who does not want to discuss his trauma is that acupuncture involves little to no talking.
Here are some of the holistic/complementary resources that veterans, their families and other members of the community may want to know about:
First, there is Helios Veterans Complementary Care. This is a group of practitioners who meet two Sundays a month to offer acupuncture, massage and other healing modalities free of charge to veterans at Starting Point Internal Cleansing Center, 959 Merrimon Ave., Suite 2, 255-2898, www.helioswarriors.org.
Secondly, there are two community acupuncture clinics in Asheville that offer sliding-scale treatments in the price range of $15 to $35. West Asheville hosts the Asheville Community Acupuncture Clinic located at 378 Haywood Road, 777-8804. North Asheville now welcomes The People’s Acupuncture of Asheville at 247 Charlotte St., Suite 202, 254-4098.
I would love for veterans to know about these services and to take advantage of them—not only for their general well-being, but for the well-being of their families and communities also.
— Elizabeth Ropp
Asheville
A better approach than treating veterans is for the USA to cease and desist from medding in every foreign, military conflict that pops up. The price in damaged lives for our veterans and their families is just too high. As put by Thomas Jefferson long ago, we should “avoid foreign entanglements” unless our vital national security interests are clearly at risk.